Tag Archives: Topic: Abortion

ADF Media: Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Casey Mattox will be available for media interviews immediately following his oral argument Thursday before the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont in a legal challenge to an Obamacare surcharge that forces people to pay for elective abortion coverage.

Life News: A pro-life bill in the Nevada legislature that would help parents know if their minor daughter is considering an abortion may die without a hearing. Surprisingly, the state Assembly is controlled by Republicans but a leading pro-life group is worried the measure may not see the light of day.

National Right to Life: This morning, pro-life Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (R) signed into law the groundbreaking Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act. The bill received overwhelming support in the state legislature earlier this year. In signing the bill, Governor Brownback makes Kansas the first state in the nation to enact the National Right to Life model legislation that will prohibit the use of dismemberment abortions. The law will go into effect on July 1.

Vox: The real issue here is whether a religious organization taking federal money needs to abide by the laws of the government or of its faith. From the ACLU’s perspective, Catholic Charities is taking millions of dollars in federal contracts to care for migrant children and teenagers, and it’s the nonprofit’s job to carry out what the government wants — including abortion access. From the Catholic perspective, the government is yet again putting new requirements on existing contracts, and following those requirements would facilitate women getting abortions, in contravention of their faith and their organizational policy.

Hawai’i Free Press: “While Hawai’i law permits a private hospital to provide ‘medical care and services’ to a pregnant minor without a parent’s consent, federal regulations on medical experimentation do require parental consent to medical experimentation on an underage patient. There may also be some doubt whether a medical experiment that may offer no medical benefit could truly be considered “medical care” under the deemed consent law, raising a question whether the clinical trial could violate state law as well as federal law if parental consent is not obtained. I do find it curious that the published notice on this trial states that the researchers will conduct ‘[n]o additional follow-up after discharge home.’”

Life News: Alliance Defending Freedom asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit Monday to hear the case of Pennsylvania’s Geneva College, which is challenging a three-judge panel’s ruling that would force the Christian school to provide access to abortion pills as required by an Obama administration mandate.

The New York Times: Once again, Arizona finds itself on the frontier of anti-abortion legislation: Late Monday, it became the first state to pass a law requiring doctors who perform drug-induced abortions to tell women that the procedure may be reversible.

National Right to Life: First, PRRI (which no one who reads its work would ever think harbors sympathy for the right to life movement) starts off by saying “Millennial attitudes about the legality of abortion generally mirror the attitudes of the general public.” At one level, that would be positive, since we are forever being told that younger people are more “liberal” on social issues. But it is even more encouraging because most polls underestimate how pro-life the overall public actually is.

AZ Governor: “The American people overwhelmingly oppose taxpayer funding of abortions, and it’s no different in Arizona, where we have long-standing policy against subsidizing them with public dollars,” said Governor Ducey. “This legislation provides clarity to state law.”

Life News: Late Monday, pro-life Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (pictured) signed a pro-life bill the Arizona legislature approved to prohibit health insurance plans under Obamacare from providing abortion coverage. The legislation, SB 1318, will allow Arizona to join the other 17 states in the U.S. that have prohibited elective abortion coverage on their state exchanges.

ADF Media: Alliance Defending Freedom asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit Monday to hear the case of Pennsylvania’s Geneva College, which is challenging a three-judge panel’s ruling that would force the Christian school to provide access to abortion pills as required by an Obama administration mandate.

Star-Telegram: A group of Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, filed more than a dozen amendments to reduce or eliminate funding for the program, which provides “pregnancy and parenting information” to low-income women.

Townhall: There’s a secret underneath Boycott Indiana’s false rhetoric about that state’s new religious freedom law: some of those involved also want to force you to help purchase and perform abortions.

Alliance Defending Freedom Litigation Counsel Catherine Glenn Foster: “American tax dollars should be used responsibly and for the common good, not wasted on Planned Parenthood’s irresponsibility and self-interest. No responsible economic policy includes bailouts for Planned Parenthood. Just last week, the GAO reported that our government sent $1.5 billion to Planned Parenthood over a three-year period. Through audits like this and reports like the one ADF has provided to Congress, Americans are learning more about the folly of funding Big Abortion.”

National Right to Life: In a $3.8 trillion federal budget, it isn’t always easy to keep track of where all the money goes. But one thing a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) makes clear is that groups such as abortion giant Planned Parenthood and the chemical abortion promoter Population Council continue to find ways to tap into government programs to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year to keep themselves afloat and active.

Religion News Service: Today, 38 states have fetal homicide laws that increase penalties for crimes involving pregnant women or explicitly refer to the fetus as a person worthy of protection. But creating and passing these laws is a contentious process because it takes lawmakers to the heart of our society’s debate over abortion: What is the unborn?

Charisma News: Alliance Defending Freedom Litigation Counsel Catherine Glenn Foster said the government should use the tax dollars of Americans responsibly, but this report confirms overwhelmingly that it has not.

PR Newswire: The case is now before three justices at the Fourth Circuit. Oral arguments will be heard Wednesday, March 25th. Alliance Defending Freedom allied attorney Charles M. Allen of the law firm Goodman, Allen & Filetti PLLC is defending Bomberger and Radiance inRadiance Foundation v. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Catholic Philly (CNS): “The government has no business forcing pro-life and faith-based organizations to betray the very values they were created to advance,” said Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Casey Mattox in an interview. “D.C. officials had the opportunity to drop these laws, which clearly violate religious freedom and freedom of conscience, but they chose not to. … Concerns about the constitutionality of these types of laws have come from people across the political spectrum.”

Townhall: On March 18, Lane allegedly lured Michelle Wilkins, seven months pregnant with a baby girl, to her home by posting an ad on Craigslist for baby clothes. It is believed that Lane then attacked Wilkins, forcibly cutting into her and removing the child from her womb. Wilkins, covered head-to-toe in blood, was left in Lane’s basement. Lane then allegedly presented herself and the baby girl at the hospital, claiming she had a miscarriage. The baby girl died shortly thereafter.

ADF Litigation Counsel Catherine Glenn Foster: “The government should use the tax dollars of Americans responsibly, but this report confirms overwhelmingly that it has not. It’s bad enough that the government is funneling the hard-earned money of Americans to pay for elective abortions, contrary to what federal law is supposed to allow, but as ADF has reported annually to Congress, Planned Parenthood and other organizations have bilked taxpayers out of millions through waste, abuse, and potential fraud. That’s why Congress has been investigating Planned Parenthood, why some members of Congress have proposed additional legislation to help stop the funding stream, and why ADF will continue its fight in court against Planned Parenthood’s misuse of tax dollars in multiple lawsuits, including Thayer v. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.”

Christian News Network: “The government has no business forcing pro-life and faith-based organizations to betray the very values they were created to advance,” said ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox. “D.C. officials had the opportunity to drop these laws, which clearly violate religious freedom and freedom of conscience, but they chose not to. Congress, therefore, should approve these resolutions to stop what can only be called hopelessly illegal bills. Concerns about the constitutionality of these types of laws have come from people across the political spectrum.”

Mic: The irony of the pill is that it was tested on women, specifically women of color — many of whom were forced to undergo sterilization — before later being marketed predominately to white women in America as a symbol of independence.

National Right to Life: In U .S. District Judge William Conley’s decision last Friday to overturn Wisconsin’s law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, there were two non-surprises.

Life News: Since the first coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign in 2007, we have now received cumulative reports of 10,000 babies who are alive today because their mothers rejected abortion and chose life!

The Federalist: “The United States is the Wild West of the fertility industry,” Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, told Pew’s Stateline this week. It’s a frequent sentiment regarding the expanding business of creating and selling human bodies and body products. The long read provoked a number of other questions about the uncharted territory we are now entering with very little discussion.

Christianity Today: In the past 100 years, the government’s official position on contraception has shifted from “immoral and illegal” to “unremarkable and mandated.” Today the law overwhelmingly favors individual choice. The rise of abortion convinced the church to reverse its laissez-faire attitude about contraception and take a decidedly pro-life stance.

Alliance Defending Freedom: Perhaps, like me, you find it hard not to marvel at the determined effort by so many authorities throughout the U.S. to impose silence on any speech that might disagree with their policies, raise thoughtful questions, or simply provide information useful to voters, students, and other fellow citizens.

The Irish Rover: Meanwhile, Notre Dame alumni have contributed to the defense of religious liberty in another arena: by advocating against two recent pieces of legislation passed by the Council of the District of Columbia that have the potential to adversely affect the cause of religious liberty across the country.

Law and Religion UK: In 2012, the Daily Telegraph organized an undercover operation into gender-specific (sex-selective) abortion at various abortion clinics in England and in February that year passed evidence concerning Doctors Palaniappan Rajmohan and Prabha Sivaraman to the Crown Prosecution Service and the police. The CPS concluded that in each case there was sufficient evidence of an abortion offence, although this was a finely balanced decision; however, it was not in the public interest to prosecute and the CPS published two statements regarding its decision on 5 September 2013 and 7 October 2013.

Reuters: Chile is considering a bill to ease a complete ban on abortion that would allow the potentially life-saving procedure under certain circumstances and has a high chance of being passed by lawmakers, a rights group said.

National Right to Life: Hoffman knows that the “unformed” tissue she saw had significance beyond its appearance. Whatever he or she looks like, the preborn baby is still a human being in an early stage of development. A person is a person from the moment of his or her creation at conception. Previously, there are two cells, each with half the chromosomes that will make up a person. Afterwards, there is a whole new living organism that develops rapidly.

Yahoo News (AP): Senate Democrats blocked debate on stalled human trafficking legislation for a second day Wednesday as a Democratic senator’s office belatedly conceded that a staff aide knew weeks ago that the measure included a controversial abortion-related provision.

Yahoo News (AP): The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday asked a federal judge to block an Alabama law that allows a fetus to be represented in court when a minor is seeking judicial permission for an abortion.

One News Now: ADF attorney Michael J. Norton alleges that Planned Parenthood threatened a lawsuit and misled the trustees into believing the hospital could lose its Medicare and Medicaid funding for failing to approve a transfer agreement.

WND: “The government has no business forcing pro-life and faith-based organizations to betray the very values they were created to advance,” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Casey Mattox said.

The Daily Caller: “The government has no business forcing pro-life and faith-based organizations to betray the very values they were created to advance,” Casey Mattox, senior counsel for the conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom said in a statement. “D.C. officials had the opportunity to drop these laws, which clearly violate religious freedom and freedom of conscience, but they chose not to.”

The Washington Post: “These bills are serious violations of religious freedoms,” said Casey Mattox, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group. “We are pleased members of Congress are taking them seriously.”

Life News: In exclusive comments to LifeNews.com, Speaker John Boehner says House Republicans are committed to bringing the pro-life bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks back to the House floor for a vote.

Life News: Senate Democrats voted yet again today to block a bill to help victims of sex trafficking because it contains pro-life language to ensure that funds intended for women victimized by human trafficking are not used to pay for abortions. This time Democrats blocked passage of the bill to help women on a 57-41 vote.

The Daily Signal: On Wednesday, Senators Ted Cruz, R-Tex., and James Lankford, R-Okla., introduced resolutions of disapproval that, if passed by Congress and signed by the president, would effectively overturn two bad pieces of legislation passed by the D.C. council earlier this year.

The Christian Post: Live Action investigators traveled to five states – Texas, New York, Arizona, Hawaii, and North Carolina – and recorded evidence of abortion clinics’ willingness to participate in sex-selective abortions.

ADF Media: Two joint resolutions of Congress introduced Wednesday would, if approved, effectively “veto” two recently passed District of Columbia laws that force religious and pro-life organizations to operate contrary to their missions and sincerely held beliefs.

The Global Dispatch: “Planned Parenthood cares more about its abortion profits than it does about the people of El Centro, the majority of whom seem clearly to not want Planned Parenthood here,” said ADF Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton. “Planned Parenthood threatened the members of the board with a lawsuit and misled them into thinking they could loseMedicare and Medicaid funding as a result. That is nearly impossible in light of the abundance of existing abortion facilities in the area. Planned Parenthood simply used its typical bully tactics to get what it wanted.”

Aleteia:
“Planned Parenthood cares more about its abortion profits than it does about the people of El Centro, the majority of whom seem clearly to not want Planned Parenthood here,” said Michael J. Norton, Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the pro-life group.

ADF Media: Planned Parenthood reportedly threatened to sue El Centro Regional Medical Center trustees in their personal capacity and falsely claimed the city-run hospital could lose public funding if it refused to sign an agreement that paves the way for Planned Parenthood to begin performing abortions in the city. El Centro is the seat of Imperial County, which borders Mexico.

The Federalist: Life can change in a moment. South Korean pastor Lee Jong-Rak had such a moment when his son, Eun-man, was born with cerebral palsy and a severely disfigured face in the mid-1980s. Lee sold his home and his family business to pay his son’s medical bills, and moved his small family into the hospital. Eun-man—whose name means “full of God’s grace”—was given only months to live.

Christian Concern: In a dramatic intervention, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has today informed lawyers representing Aisling Hubert that it will take over and drop the private prosecutions brought by Miss Hubert against doctors who were prepared to offer abortions on gender grounds.

Life News: “I’m pro-life. My position is consistent on that,” he said. “They’re taking an ad out there that talked about what the law did in the state which was endorsed by Wisconsin Right to Life, so it’s a pro-life law.”

Varlden idag (translated via Google): Last week Ellinor Grimmark and Ruth Nordstrom home from a trip to the UN headquarters in Geneva. While the twenty-eighth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council took place, arranged the Swedish lawyer organization Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers, like Nordstrom leads, together with the organization Alliance Defending Freedom International seminar in the UN building of conscience. At the seminar, the duo Grimmark and Nordstrom on the so-called midwifery case.

Idaho Statesman: The group Abolitionists4Life sued last year in federal court in Boise after protesting university-imposed restrictions that members said violated the group’s free speech rights. The lawsuit was brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Family Studies: In a study released this month investigating the source of class gaps in unintended births, Brookings Institution researchers found that low-income women are more likely to experience an unintended pregnancy because not only are they less likely to use contraception—they are also less likely to get an abortion.

National Right to Life: The pleas from individual members of the pro-life group, interspersed with personal stories from students who became pregnant, offer a compelling case of love and hope for a student considering abortion.